Could Your Brain Scan Predict Future Behavior? Perhaps! — Dave’s Diary

In the 2002 movie "Minority Report," the year is 2054 and the PreCrime police force uses visions of the future generated by three mutated humans with precognitive abilities, to stop murders before they happen. When a respected officer -- Tom Cruise -- generates a new prediction saying that he will murder a man in 36 hours, he goes on the run to prove his future innocence. It made for an entertaining movie but what if there WERE a way to predict human behavior? How fascinating would that be! Most of us accept that the future is a mystery, but what if, what if ...?

A new analysis of recent studies reveals that brain scans might be a good tool for predicting human behaviors. Imaging of the brain has already proven capable of predicting a person's future learning abilities and disabilities, health-related behaviors, propensity for criminality, and reception to drug and behavioral treatments.

Lead study author Dr. John Gabrieli says, "Presently, we often wait for failure, in school or in mental health, to prompt attempts to help, but by then a lot of harm has occurred. If we can use neuro-imaging to identify individuals at high risk for future failure, we may be able to help those individuals avoid such failure altogether."

The potential is exciting …and a little frightening!

(UPI)